Promotional Items
By: Zombie
UFO:Enemy Unknown | UFO Defense | TFTD | Apocalypse | Interceptor | Em@il | Enforcer | Alliance
MicroProse | MicroProse (Other) | XCOM:Enemy Unknown | The Bureau:XCOM Declassified | XCOM 2
UFO: Enemy Unknown
UFO Enemy Unknown Trade Show Poster°
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This gigantic poster was used to advertise the game by MicroProse in their trade show booth and was saved by Quentin Chaney. Now owned by Zombie, it measures a whopping 24×59 inches (61×150cm) and is in pretty good shape overall.
UFO Enemy Unknown Poster¹
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This is a framed Enemy Unknown poster which actually hung in the MicroProse offices at one time. It is owned by John Broomhall.
UFO Enemy Unknown Poster°
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This is the same Enemy Unknown poster as above except unframed and measures 41.9 × 59.7cm (16½ × 23½ inches). According to Quentin Chaney, this was a UK-only poster with a limited production run. He gave a handful of them out to a few members of the X-COM TFTD development team when he returned home, but other than that there are only about 6 copies in the US (Zombie owns three of them).
UFO Enemy Unknown Amiga Poster°
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This is another Enemy Unknown poster except it's an Amiga version and measures 41.9 × 59.7cm (16½ × 23½ inches). According to Quentin Chaney who owned this, it was a UK-only poster with a limited production run. Apart from a few small creases the poster is like new and so rare it's probably the only copy in existance today. Zombie owns this.
UFO: Enemy Unknown UK Promo Flyer°
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This is a rare promotional flyer originally acquired by Quentin Chaney when he worked in the marketing department at MicroProse. It's dimensions are 5 7/8 × 8¼ inches (14.9×21cm) folded, or 11 11/16 × 8¼ inches (29.7×21cm) unfolded.
X-COM: Enemy Unknown Promo Flyer°
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This is a rare promotional flyer for the UK PlayStation version. It's dimensions are 8¼ × 11 11/16 inches (21×29.7cm) folded, or 16½ × 11 11/16 inches (41.9×29.7cm) unfolded. Zombie owns two of these in perfect condition.
PSX Standee²
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Owned by Stuart Whyte, this is a standee used to market the PSX version of Enemy Unknown. Unfortunately, he may have lost this. The exact size is hard to determine, but assuming the game in the picture is in a standard jewel case, the approximate dimensions are 10×10 inches (or 254×254mm).
Enemy Unknown Tee°
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This is an extremely rare t-shirt originally acquired by Quentin Chaney when he worked at a MicroProse office in the United Kingdom. Zombie owns two of these shirts, one is completely unworn and new, while the other is Quentin's personal shirt which is lightly worn but heavily loved.
UFO subLOGIC Game°
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While this game tecnically does not relate to UFO: Enemy Unknown, it carries a historical background that pertains specifically to the name change to X-COM: UFO Defense. When the original version of UFO came over from the UK to see if it was worth releasing stateside, [MicroProse] marketing did a title search and found Sub Logic’s UFO. Sub Logic also developed Microsoft Flight Simulator, that many considered at the time to be the standard for all flight sims. That’s when it was decided a new name was needed for the game (X-COM), which was suggested by playtest along with some others. They actually voted on it. After checking with the developers over in the UK, who were so happy to being published as a MPS game in the US, they consented to the change immediately. So Quentin traded or bought the UFO game and everyone looked it over, played it, and found it was nothing like UFO: EU would be, but it’s a footnote to why the game was X-COM in the states. This is the actual game from this story.
X-COM Software Evolution °
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Advertised as a shareware version, this is actually nothing more than the demo with some lofty claims (Super 3-D and Superb Sound & Graphic Support). The latest file has a date stamp of July 17, 1995, so this should be considered the release date. The sleeve dimensions are 12.7×12.7 cm (5 × 5 inches big enough for a CD) and the disk dimensions are 8.9cm × 8.9cm × ≈0.3cm (3½ × 3½ × ≈ 1/8 inches) .
X-COM: UFO Defense
X·COM Coffee Mug³ °
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According to Quentin Chaney (who worked at MicroProse in the marketing department), MicroProse made a single batch of 100 of these mugs and they were given out to employees only. Zombie owns two of these mugs.
X·COM UFO Defense Tee³
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I (Zombie) believe this is a X·COM: UFO Defense t-shirt, as it doesn't have the same detailing as the shirt above. The rationale being that the UK PSX was the first version to use the X·COM logo. I do not own one of these shirts, but would like to.
X·COM Shirt Pin°
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This is a tremendously rare pin originally acquired by Quentin Chaney when he worked in the marketing department at MicroProse. According to him, only a few dozen of these were made and they were given out to members of the development team and a few other key employees at MicroProse. Recenty, I have found some evidence that these pins were also given away as swag at the European Computer Trade Show in 1995 (held at the Olympia Grand exhibition center in London March 26-28) to celebrate the release of X-COM for the Playstation 1. Zombie now owns four of these pins - two are naked and two are still in the original factory sealed poly bag. It's dimensions are 1 1/8×9/16 inches (or 3½×1½cm).
X·COM Patch°
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This patch measures 2½×1¼ inches (or 7×3 cm), but doesn't appear to have a iron-on coating on the back. Perhaps it's more of a sew-on patch, but my guess is that the iron-on coating wasn't applied by mistake. I own three of these, and it's almost certainly that these are not original MicroProse items. Most likely they are recent aftermarket creations made to resemble the pin above.
X-Gum "Ublo" Bubblegum²
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X-Gum "Ublo" Bubblegumª
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This item was manufactured to hold a discus of bubblegum inside the floppy disk clamshell case. It's dimensions are 3½" × 3½" × ≈ 1/8" (8.9cm × 8.9cm × ≈0.3cm), and was purchased from an end cap display at either WalMart or Kroger.
High-Explosive Pencil Case°
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This is a High-Explosive Pencil Case made by Rawring Crafts over at the Etsy website. It is constructed out of fleece and is completely handmade. She even allows you to customize the case exactly the way you want it (I had mine personalized with Zombie). All this for $20 + $3.50 shipping. Deal of the century if you ask me. I would recommend a different type of zipper though - even though it's a YKK the teeth pulled apart the third time I opened it (easily fixed, but annoying). It measures 23×7.5cm (9×3 inches).
X-COM/UFO Companion Disc°
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This is a X-COM/UFO Companion disc discovered by our very own Bomb Bloke in 2010 at a local second-hand store in Australia. It contains three different tip/hint files, both UFO and TFTD Unofficial Strategy Guides, the UFO v1.3 patch by MicroProse and XcomUtil v2.3. The latest file has a date stamp of November 9, 1995, so this should be considered the release date. It's dimensions are 8.9cm × 8.9cm × ≈0.3cm (3½ × 3½ × ≈ 1/8 inches).
Credits
° Photos and scans courtesy of Zombie.
¹ Photos courtesy of John "XCOMAUDIO" Broomhall.
² Photos courtesy of Stuart Whyte.
³ Photos courtesy of Drew "Drewid" Northcott.
ª Photos courtesy of Lee "Koloth" Benjamin.
